Professional Resources

• Sociology of Education 
  The study of economic inequality is so fundamental to sociology that there is no American Sociological Association (ASA) Section on economic inequality per se. Many members of the ASA Section on Sociology of Education are fundamentally interested in poverty and economic inequality as it is mediated, ameliorated, or reproduced by educational institutions.
   
• Race, Gender, and Class 
  Connections between race, gender, and class inequality are addressed by the ASA Section Race, Gender, and Class.
• Marxist Sociologists 
  Marxist Sociologists, of course, are greatly concerned with these issues.
   
• Journal of Poverty 
  Research on economic inequality regularly appears in all general sociology journals. A journal devoted entirely to the issue of poverty is the Journal of Poverty.

Data Resources

• The National Longitudinal Surveys 
  The National Longitudinal Surveys of the U.S. Department of Labor’ s Bureau of Labor Statistics gather detailed information about labor market experiences and other aspects of the lives of American men and women.
   
• The Department of Health and Human Services 
  The Department of Health and Human Services has a Web page on poverty guidelines, research, and measurement, which includes information about how Mollie Orshansky developed the poverty thresholds during the 1960s.
• The Panel Study of Income Dynamics 
  The Panel Study of Income Dynamics is a longitudinal survey of a representative sample of U.S. men, women, and children and the families in which they reside. Data on employment, income, wealth, health, housing, food expenditures, transfer income, and marital and fertility behavior have been collected annually since 1968.
   
• The Wisconsin Longitudinal Study
• The Wisconsin Longitudinal Study is a study of the social and economic life course of 10,000 men and women who graduated from Wisconsin high schools in 1957, and who have been followed up at ages 25, 36, and 53-54.

Other Resources

• Michael Kearl’s Sociological Tour Through Cyberspace 
  Michael Kearl’s Sociological Tour Through Cyberspace: Social Inequality. This contains more information and links on social inequality than you will be able to handle. Something for everyone. Happy Surfing!
   
• Inequality 
  Does income and wealth inequality matter? Why is it happening? What can be done? Despite the emerging consensus over the fact of rising inequality, there is still wide divergence of opinion over its sources - and potential solutions. Inequality.org was created to serve as a dependable portal of information. Too much inequality, we believe, undermines democracy, community, culture and economic health. Because the problem is so important, accuracy is important, and we are committed to presenting the best and latest information [self-characterization].
   
• The Stateline.com
• Many objectives of welfare reform are played out on the state and local level. The Stateline.com Web site is devoted to political news on a statewide level. It includes links to political news briefs in each of the 50 states. The welfare reform section at this site provides up-to-date information on the status of hot issues in welfare reform on a statewide level [self-characterization].
   
• The Economic Policy Institute (EPI)
• The Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a non-profit, non-partisan think tank, was created in 1986 to broaden discussions about economic policy to include the needs of low- and middle-income workers. EPI believes every working person deserves a good job with fair pay, affordable health care, and retirement security.  To achieve this goal, EPI conducts research and analysis on the economic status of working America.  EPI proposes public policies that protect and improve the economic conditions of low- and middle-income workers and assesses policies with respect to how they affect those workers.